MandyM really said it well. This story was amazingly good in part 1. I loved the story, loved the characters, loved everything.

The premise of Freedom is pretty much what you would expect, given the title. The reader catches a glimpse of a dystopian society, in a world after "burst", where psychically-talented citizens live in the cities, and those without talents are largely relegated to the "outside" or, depending on their connections, are allowed to live in the city but are given thankless jobs.

A John Doe is found outside, horribly beaten/attacked and as a result is borderline psychotic. Patrick, a somewhat talented empath, is brought in to help assess and heal the tortured mind of John Doe. As part of this, the reader gets to experience the building relationship of the two men in a sterile society. Through this relationship, Patrick comes to realize that his "safe and secure" society isn't what it seems.

Kirkpatrick excels at writing the budding relationship in, writing a riveting story, and providing an underlying warning, or mistake to the story- without becoming preachy. Excellent writing.

Where the author started to lose me, similar to MandyM, was in part two. The MCs are temporarily separated, the story focuses more on an ensemble cast (with multi-person head hopping!), and the story takes on shades of an action film. It really felt a bit like Firestarter, to be honest.

Still, I really (really) enjoyed the writing, and looooved the first part if the story. So.. A 3-3.5 overall. Certainly recommended, and I will absolutely check out future work from this author.